Bob Mayo's thoughts on the passage of time (5/11/07)

What has happened to us and to the world since we graduated?

I can remember when we used to play outside all day, every day without fear of getting skin cancer. We never carried a house key because the doors were kept unlocked most of the time and I am willing to bet that there were no more than two keys to the house anyway. Mothers were usually housekeepers and were home all of the time because the one car that the family owned took our fathers to work.

I can remember when the only burger joints around were the A&W in Rockledge and the Fat Boys on Cocoa Beach. There were no pizza parlors and there certainly wasn't pizza home delivery. The mailman brought the mail right up to the front door and the milkman left bottles of milk at the front door. When was the last time you saw that?

I can remember when families did thing as a family. We would all pack into the car for a day at the beach or on special occasions may even take a short day trip to some adventurous place like McKee Jungle Gardens, Sanlando Springs, Cypress Gardens or St. Augustine. Gas was $0.19 cents a gallon during the gas wars and wasn't much more than that on a normal day.

The whole family would sit around the TV in the living room simply because families only had one TV and that one was a black and white model. How many channels could we receive with our rabbit ears? Remember how the neighbors car would screw up our reception until they  were way down the road? Many hours were not spent on the telephone simply because most of us had four-party lines and probably couldn't even get on. Then again, the only phone in the house was in the living room and every family member could hear every word of every conversation.

Some things have gotten better over the years. We can now have our private phone line and can even talk while driving the car. Most have numerous TVs in the house and a selection of more than two channels to watch. If we get hungry we can pick up one of our numerous phones and call one of the numerous pizza parlors and have a hot pizza delivered in twenty minutes directly to the spot that was formally reserved for the milkman and mailman.

Time used to pass oh so slow ! We thought we would never grow up! Now there are not enough hours in a day to do all the things we want to do.

Remember when everyone (well almost everyone) had a last name like Smith or Jones? Remember when we could pronounce everyone's name correctly? Remember when stamps were 3 cents and the sales tax was 3 percent? Remember when your employer provided complete coverage health insurance?

Oh many things have changed since our high school days........some good........some not good. At least we have color TV and air conditioning!

I used to think that I would like to go back in time to my high school years and relive life again only this time not making the same mistakes along the way that I made the first time. Let's rethink that situation for one moment.........no color TV and no satellite receiver, no air conditioning (either the house or car), no computers, no ipods, no cell phones, no Monday night football, no American Idol or Survivor, no pizza delivery, no satellite radio, no GPS, and etc.

So let's see.......I would probably spend more time with family, read more, eat better yet not gain weight, know my neighbors names,  be healthier because I spent more time outdoors,  not worry too much if I forgot to lock the front door last night or left the car unlocked in the driveway, not have to worry about the children in school or out of school............hum.................Where do I sign up?